When we made Valentines for the kid's classmates, the boys wanted to make one for themselves too. I told Peter he should put "Peter" as the person it was from. He came up with his own idea - "From: ME". And then Ned copied and added his own flair - "From: Me Ned"as if he might forget who "Me" was.
Printable bag toppers here.
I always got a new dress for Christmas when I was a kid. My mom always let me pick out the pattern and the fabric that I wanted and I loved it. My Christmas dress was often made from a rich velvet that always made me feel that magic of Christmas. I haven't had a new Christmas dress in several years. Last week on Thursday, I was thinking about this and thinking about how nice it would be to have a dress this year. And I thought I'd procrastinated too long again because there was no way I was going to pull off a Christmas dress before Sunday when my first thoughts of making it were on Thursday. Then I remembered a skirt that I bought a while ago that had been hanging in my "to refashion" pile and I had a bit of inspiration. So, I didn't end up with a dress, but I did come up with an outfit that I really love and it even made me feel a little bit like I had put on a velvet dress, but for a lot less money.
I've made a lot of effort in this past year or so to wear more thrifted items. I think I've gotten to the point where I am wearing about 75% thrifted clothing. I hardly even shop anywhere but the thrift store for clothes. This Christmas outfit is kind of a culmination of that effort - minus the shoes and tights, it is almost completely thrifted or made from items in my stash. The skirt was refashioned (using this tutorial -same one that I used for this skirt) from a longer skirt with a smaller waistband that I got for $3 and it's kind of a silky fabric, so it had a touch of fanciness to it. The sweater is also thrifted - it is a basic elbow length black GAP sweater that I have had since early this year and have found so essential to my wardrobe. I think I paid between $2 and $4 for it.
I did have to buy the ribbon for the belt, but the flowers are made completely from fabrics in my stash - my favorite is the yellow plaid wool that I thrifted. I'd like to do a tutorial for this, hopefully by next month. I've seen these belts around the web for some crazy prices and they are so easy to make. I made mine in about an hour the night before I wore it and had several hot glue gun burns on my fingers to prove it! But it was definitely fast, easy, and inexpensive to make.
It was nice to bring back some of that magic of Christmas from my childhood. I've really tried to relax and take it easy this holiday season and it seems to be working - I'm so enjoying the holidays this year, really enjoying watching my kids get so excited. I hope you are having a wonderful time celebrating also!
I got this recipe at a Relief Society Candy Recipe Exchange activity that I attended a couple of weeks ago. There were many delicious candies and recipes shared that evening, but this is the only recipe I brought home because it was the only one that I really thought I would make because it was so easy. I think I might be getting lazy, or just more realistic about the amount of work I am actually willing to put forth for something good to eat.
Crock Pot Peanut Clusters
16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
16 oounces white chocolate chips
16 ounces white almond bark
16 ounces dry roasted salted peanuts
16 ounces dry roasted unsalted peanuts
Place all ingredients in a slow cooker on low for 1 hours, stirring occasionally. When the chocolate is completely melted, use a spoon to drop small mounds on waxed paper. Let the mounds set up and store in air tight container in the fridge. Makes a ton! Well, not really a ton, but around 100 clusters.
For the salted peanuts, I used the dry roasted peanuts that you can get at Costco. These are very lightly salted and I think you could use two pounds of these peanuts instead of the unsalted and salted. If I make them again, I'm going to try this.
Like I said in my last post, I'm not a big fan of making the same thing over and over again for neighbors and friends, so I also made these simple homemade oreo cookies, this pumpkin bread, and a great simple bread recipe that I know I got from a blog a while ago, but I can't remember which one. And of course, there have been lots of extras for us that I've been enjoying a little too much in the last few days. Tis' the season, right? Enjoy!
Hello there! Here I am, still here, alive and breathing and getting ready for Christmas. I shut down the shop a couple of weeks ago so that I could relax, enjoy, and spend more time with the boys and Ryan. It's been lovely. I think my Christmas cards are going to get in the mail before Christmas - this is progress for me.
Life has been pretty much more of the same the last few months - the shop for me, school for the boys, and the job hunt (for Ryan). There are a few things happening with the job hunt, but I think I'll keep quiet about them on here for now. The stress of it is becoming more normal, or I'm finding better ways to deal with it. I did start substitute teaching in October and it's been nice to have a day or two a week to be out of the house and be occupied. Christmas is also a good distraction.
The boys are more aware than ever of when Christmas is and what it's all about - their enthusiasm is catching. We had a great time tonight delivering goodies to our neighbors and friends and it was fun to have two boys willing to help out. I always make many different things to give away. I get too bored making just one thing for everyone. This year our options were peanut clusters (made in a crockpot. so easy! I'll share that one later), homemade oreos, pumpkin bread, or bread and jam. And I made this fun tags by downloading a free printable (I wish I could remember where this came from - help me out if you've seen this and know where it came from) and then adding some personalization to it in Picnik. I had the file printed as a wallet at Costco and they worked perfectly. I think we might start using something like this for all of our gifts - so easy to have our names already printed on the tag!
Well, I hope you are enjoying your holiday preparations! Tomorrow is cleaning day for us...and Wednesday too probably. I hope to be back here more often, especially after Christmas. My camera is broken (I bought some things to clean it and hopefully fix it, but I'm still a bit scared to do it so it hasn't happened yet), but my phone takes a pretty good picture, so that will have to do for now. The stress of the job hunt comes and goes, but one thing that definitely helps keep me level-headed is staying busy and doing normal things, even if I feel like things could be changing any day now.
That's right - we've got a four year old around here! I can hardly believe it. We love this little guy and all of the fun that he brings to our family. He's so curious and full of energy right now - in that stage where he asks "why" and "what does that mean?" all day long. He loves to dance and sing (if he thinks no one is listening) and talk about what he will do when he is big.
His requests for his special day were a strawberry cake and bowling. The bowling took a super long time. He insisted on rolling the ball on his own and his little four year old arms didn't really have the power to get the ball going very fast. Both boys would let the ball go and then stand in a pose for a few seconds, admiring their work. Pretty funny. By about frame 6, Ned was just about done with the bowling, so he let us help a little at that point, but still bowled his last frame.
I'm so glad that Ned is such a happy guy and he brings that happiness to our family. Happy Birthday!
Peter turned six! Yes, yes, we did have a birthday (almost two weeks ago), but it's kid birthday season (Ned's is in about two weeks) in our house and we're just calling it birthday month around here. So, excuse me if I'm a little late in posting this, but I'm still in celebration mode. Peter had a great day complete with candles in his morning pancakes and a visit to a friend's house in the afternoon where he ran a car track from their moose head antlers to the floor and saw their chickens. He loved it!
For those of you who followed on Facebook, I did go with strawberry skewers for his class treat. I am always appalled at the amount of sweets that end up at the class parties and I wanted to do something healthy. The kids loved it! Phew! I was a little worried. I printed the free flags from Fog and Thistle. I think I will do the same thing for Ned's class birthday treat.
I love this kid's smile. And that he has no trouble picking out the best flavor cake - that was one delicious chocolate cake. Thanks for making me a mom, Peter - you're a great kid!
I am still debating whether I will throw the boys a joint friend birthday party when the weather gets warmer. I told myself this was the year. Talk me into it please...
Thank you for all of your encouraging comments in the last post. I am dealing with it all fairly well - the most noticeable change to me is that I'm not eating as well or exercising as much, which is unfortunate because those things would probably help me feel better. I felt like I wasn't blogging much because there were so many things going on that I hadn't shared here yet that were the biggest parts of my life. We are enjoying a nice relaxing Easter weekend at home which is really helping. Here's some of what we've done.
I tried the electrical tape method from the latest MS Living magazine, but it didn't turn out quite as neat as hers did. I also tried punching out some shapes, but they just fell off the eggs. Did anyone else try this?
The boys did a little coloring with crayons on their eggs, but mostly just wanted to get another one in the dye as soon as one egg was finished.
I made two bowling bunnies - finished them very late last night and slipped one in each easter basket. I have enough to make a full set embroidered and cut out. I hope to finish them today.
And orange rolls (although I use the Refrigerator Roll recipe instead of the Dinner Roll on). This is more of a General Conference tradition for us than an Easter one. There's no better day to listen to conference than Easter - I'm grateful to be home enjoying the day, learning about the Savior, and watching the boys hide their eggs and then go searching for them again. Happy Easter everyone!
I turned thirty-three this week. Since my birthday is so close to the New Year, I often find myself reflecting on the past year and what I want for the next year a little later in January. My thirties started out on a pretty rough note, but I'm happy to say that they get better every year. Feeling defeated by many things that were out of my control encouraged me to take on some challenges that I could control - like running a half marathon a year and a half ago and then taking a class that previously seemed daunting to me. And most recently, I am feeling super blessed to have finally lost my baby weight - a little over 20 pounds that I've been hanging on to for almost four years (when I'm not here for a few days, I'm probably exercising. My Wii and I are really tight:)). I've never lost more than 5 pounds ever, not even when I ran that half marathon. It's got me wondering what else I never thought I'd do is around the corner.
p.s. I made that cake stand with a $1 candlestick, a 50 cent plate, and bit of E-6000. It became a little unstable as the cake got cut and it's weight wasn't distributed evenly, but it was easily remedied by putting the knife on the empty side of the platter. I think I'll try to look for some candlesticks with a larger base and try again, but it was fun to have this cake stand for my birthday - it made me feel special!
It's probably way too late for this post - all of you are into your healthy eating resolutions and I will just be tempting you with this delicious treat. But if you didn't make a healthy eating resolution or you are like Ned who said, "I still need more Christmas!" this morning, this is something you should definitely try right now.
These are my grandma's popcorn balls. I grew up eating these and I promise that after you have one you will not be able to eat another popcorn ball again. I never could! The secret to their full flavor and bright colors is Jello. This year we made them in four flavors - cherry, strawberry, lime, and orange. We gave a few to neighbors and friends, some to my grandma who is taking care of my sick grandpa and didn't make any homemade treats this year and kept a few for ourselves. I finished the last one on New Year's Day. And even though they are super easy, I only make them once a year, so I'll just have to drool over the pictures until Christmas comes around again.
POPCORN BALLS
1 c. light corn syrup (see I told you they were not good for you!)
1/2 c. sugar
1 3 oz package of flavored gelatin
12-14c. of unflavored popped popcorn - we use air popped, but I think pan/oil popped would work just fine - just don't flavor it. In my popper it is about 1/3 c. unpopped.
Bring corn syrup and sugar to a boil while stirring. When mixture reaches boiling, cook for 4 minutes then remove from heat and add gelatin, stirring until dissolved. Pour mixture over popped popcorn (make sure the popcorn is in a very large bowl) and use a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to mix well. Quickly form the popcorn balls by dipping your hands in cold water (keeping a bowl close by or turning the faucet on momentarily works great), taking a handful of the popcorn mixture and squeezing. Place balls on waxed paper and let sit for 1-2 hours. Each batch makes about 10 popcorn balls.
Here are a few shots of the process. This was with the orange batch which wasn't nearly as colorful as the others so it is harder to see the syrup mix on the popcorn, but hopefully they are still helpful.
Make sure the popcorn is coated well before forming the balls - sort of like rice crispy cereal when you are making rice crispy treats.
A good handful is just about the right size - squeeze it a bit and set it down on the waxed paper. When they have dried for an hour or two, you can slip them into a sandwich bag or they can be wrapped in a square of wax paper and tied with ribbon. Of course, I always enjoy one right after I've formed them - nice and warm and gooey! Enjoy!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! I hope you are enjoying a wonderful holiday. I think I'm back. No, there have been no disasters or even anything new and exciting going on here, just life and the holidays taking over. We are still visiting family, but head home tomorrow. The boys have been brimming with holiday excitement (translation: the boys have been driving me crazy with all of their emotional highs and lows) for the past three weeks and I am excited to get back home and back to our normal routine.
I've been wanting to spruce up my blog for a while, and wasn't really sure how to do it (Sandi did everything for me when I set this blog up), so I just went for it tonight. Was anyone checking my blog while I changed it a million times tonight? It's a little cleaner and a little crisper. I have long loved photo headers and so I came up with something simple and quick tonight, but I want to get in the habit of changing my header more often, so hopefully I will learn some new tricks!
Lest you think I had forgotten the blog forever, there have been lots of plans for blogging in the last month or so which means I did take pictures. Here are a few to show you what I've been up to...
Stockings (with new pictures) and a new holiday banner were in the shop.
I'm trying to decide if I like these wood walls as a background...at least they are real wood.
We attended the annual Christmas lights parade in our little town. Mother nature enhanced the mood with a bit of a snow storm.
We played in the snow and made our first snowman.
I made these fun snowman cupcakes for Peter's class party. A couple of M&Ms, a few chocolate chips, and a rolled out and cut orange slice and voila. They were pretty delicious too.
We enjoyed our December and I'm excited for a New Year with new starts and fresh feelings and no more Christmas treats around the house...they have really sabotaged my healthy living plan the last two weeks!
